Happy Father’s Day

Happy Father’s Day to those practitioners of this much maligned and devalued profession. There was a joke a couple of decades ago. It went something like this: On Mother’s Day, the kids call the mom, give flowers cards, take her out to eat and express appreciation. Father’s Day is a Graham Rudman Mother’s day. Does anyone remember Graham Rudman? We can see how well that one turned out. Back to the subject. There are two points which need to be made especially for today. 1.) men are required as the backbone of civilization, 2.) it takes a man to make a boy into a man. I can hear some screams of disgust at my choice of the two topics, but for anyone who wishes to continue, I do have some relevant thoughts. There is only one maternally oriented society of which I have knowledge – Iroquois. (I looked up the subject and found that link listing some others) The foundation of the society is the family and the backbone of the family is the dad. That’s not to say that mothers have a lesser role, or no authority. I’m just acknowledging the natural flow of authority and note that Biblically speaking, that is correct. God will ask the man about his family. The man was given authority, therefore the man is responsible. Let me demonstrate this using this country’s inverse of the situation. Welfare was promoted with Lyin’ B Johnson saying that he would have those N*&^& voting for the democrats for the next 200 years. What has happened to the black families when it was profitable for the females to remove the fathers from the house? Next, how has the black population fared behavior-wise and prison population-wise when the man is not available to turn the boy into a man? Look at the prison population and ask the question – how many of you had an active father? You know the answer. I have stated previously and will enter it again at this point – the removal of the father from the family is placing government as the dad. One lady to whom I made that pronouncement scoffed at the idea and I followed with the question – who do you call when the child is unmanageable?

As for the second point, I was suggested a book a few years ago – Iron John – which was an interesting read. The subject was turning boys into men as a sociological study where the author observed rituals and passages through various cultures to find a common theme among them. After all, if something occurs in different contexts and a multitude of cultures, it must be fundamental. Once you remove the window dressing, there were two salient points. One, the boy became a man with the direction and tutelage of men. Two, it was a painful process. From the book there are a couple of illustrations. In one tribe, the boys were sent off on their own for three days to forage and be alone – to become hungry and desirous of companionship. At the end of three days, all the men would be gathered around a fire and would cut themselves and bleed into a cup which was given to the boy to drink. From that point on, the boy was under training from the men. As a baby, the boy was receiving milk from the female. Once grown, the boy would then become a man and would receive blood from the men. There were other variations of that same theme. As for pain, some would inflict it as part of the ceremony – as in knocking out a tooth which was done in another tribe. But no matter what population group, those two points were noted.

Going back to the first illustration, you can see where I’m going with this. The government, by removing men from the home, has created the situation where boys aren’t provided the training they need to become real men. The population is skewed accordingly by that deficit. Therefore, for those men who have stuck with your families and taken the cultural and media darts to provide your leadership and proper training, my hat’s off to you. Those children coming behind us need your role model and care. Kids are benefited by your presence, love, and touch. I benefited from a father who had a rough childhood, survived war, and still offered his loving touch and direction to the family. Thanks dad. All you did was appreciated – and even more so now that I’m older.